Rare and interesting car sightings

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mubd
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by mubd »

boronia wrote:Poking around in Facebook the other day, I came across a photo of a small Asian truck, registered in NSW. Very fancy cab with lots of chrome. Thought it might have been Chinese, but checking the rego, it came up as a 2017 Daihatsu. Checking the web, it seems to be a tarted up HiJet, which I didn't think was on the market anymore. Not old enough to be a "grey import". so got me wondering if Toyota is looking at bringing them back on the local market?
Daihatsu Hijets can be grey imported just the same as Nissan Cubes can, and I have seen a few of them up for sale online. There are actually quite a few new Daihatsu models that have been grey imported recently.
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by scott »

Saw a lovely looking KE Laser Ghia sedan, with it's rather unique rear wiper on the sedan rear window. Still had original issue Victorian plates with DI as the first letters, online Vic Roads rego check shows it was first registered in January of 1988, so probably a very early KE Sedan built in the latter part of 1987.

This morning I saw another, not so lovely, KE Laser Ghia sedan without the rear wiper, so later KE builds may of had it deleted or it got a new rear screen during it's life, that lacked the wiper. There was no mechanism there.

Both cars were that lovely shade of Platinum silver that looks so good on Fords of that era if it is looked after.
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by Swift »

^ nice to know my car has sister units around.
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by Swift »

HR in Umina. Sign in window asking $25,000. I wonder how they arrived at that? The rims have rust.

PS: no one interested in the HR? What's with the crickets?!?
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by scott »

Considering they were $2,286 new according to Wikipedia and Redbook lists them between $1,980 and $4,620, that guy is dreaming, you could probably talk him down on the rusted rims though.

A distant relative had one, It survived until 2002, by then it was so bad Fred Flintstone could drive it, he was insulted by how much the wrecker offered him. It went straight to the crusher, there were no decent bits to part out.
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by Swift »

Australians have become very greedy money grubbers.
There's a reason people don't use these dinosaurs as daily transport anymore. Not seeing them on the road doesn't make them a rare painting on the art market.
Not too long ago (maybe 10 years) I saw a brown HD in good nick going for about $3000.
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by scott »

The dealerships that service the cars are greedy too, in fact even greedier.

I have heard stories from people who drive Audi's that the dealerships want them to pay $600 for a wheel alignment and say they are the only ones that can do it, because the automatic braking systems need to be recalibrated etc, and when the owner refuses, the service advisors get all upset and say that without the alignment, the car is unroadworthy and threaten to call the police to defect the car, utter madness.

They take the car to the Bob Jane down the road who can do the alignment for about $60 and no recaibrations necessary.
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boronia
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by boronia »

Took my Corolla in to local Toyota dealer recently for the air bag replacement. [I get my regular servicing done by a local indie mech.]

When I picked it up there was this large sign off the mirror warning that my aftermarket floor mats were "dangerous" because they could move and foul the pedals. They had been removed and placed into a plastic bag. I needed to get "genuine Toyota mats" which had "clips" to hold them in place. My mats are heavy duty and are highly unlikely to move anywhere of their own accord; so I declined but still got a further verbal warning about the issue. I had quickly considered what a set of "genuine Toyota" mats would have cost.

[A friend bought a new Hyundai recently, and the dealer very generously threw in a set of aftermarket vinyl mats. I think newsprint paper is thicker than these were. So much for "safety"]
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by scott »

I think that is why some people are resisting taking thier cars back for the Takata airbag recall, being older cars, the dealer will try every little trick in the book to make some money and find something that they think is not up to scratch.

Saw an old Nissan Nomad people mover today, looked OK, on a Victorian club permit number plate that any vehicle over 25 years old can have.

The Nomads were sold in the US as the Nissan Van, and they were all crushed, when they suffered engine fires and many recalls did not fix the issue, so Nissan bought them back at market value and sent them off to the boneyard.
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by Swift »

Boronia wrote:
When I picked it up there was this large sign off the mirror warning that my aftermarket floor mats were "dangerous" because they could move and foul the pedals. They had been removed and placed into a plastic bag. I needed to get "genuine Toyota mats" which had "clips" to hold them in place. My mats are heavy duty and are highly unlikely to move anywhere of their own accord; so I declined but still got a further verbal warning about the issue. I had quickly considered what a set of floor,p [/b]
There would be thousands and thousands of death traps out there in that case. They must be pulling this on everyone and doubtless many fall it, especially Toyota customers.
We all know stealerships have been up to shenanigans since the dawn of time but come on, deadly floor mats now? :!:
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by busrider »

Toyota gets a bit nervous about incorrectly fitted floor mats: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009%E2 ... le_recalls
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by Swift »

While waiting for the 1980s Mitsubishi Sigma to find a parking space so I could discreetly photograph it, lo and behold I score a bonus 1980s Holden Gemini with tell tale T bar "autlé-matique" gearbox. Interesting to see the combination of amber wraparound indicators with sealed beam headlamps. A friend of mine used to have an ex Sydney County Council green wagon body panel van with the auto. Great handling car with plenty of zip. Badly rusted and this was in the 1990s, which makes this survivor all the more remarkable.
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

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My dad had one of those Sigmas as a Telecom fleet car. Never got a ride as it was not allowed to carry passengers or be driven out of hours according to fleet policy, but he used to sneak it off to the hardware store and fill up the back with bits of wood that he could not fit into our Camira.
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by scott »

Found this 1994 ED Falcon XR8 with only 2000km on it.

https://www.australianmusclecarsales.co ... new-244075

From looking at the documentation, original owner had a three month wait, ordered Jan 94, picked up April 94. $40,000 when new, first of the XR series Falcons with unique frontal styling. Love how they hid the jack under a moulded panel on the side of the boot.
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by Heihachi_73 »

Saw a beige Datsun 180B outside Ringwood Coles at 8 this morning, still with the original black and white I-series number plate, hubcaps and window louvre.
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by Swift »

Waz it autle-matique or Manuel?
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boronia
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

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Not many of these 4WD Camrys around these days?
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scott
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

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It is actually a Corolla 4WD Wagon, not a Camry.

A relative of mine had one, he used to enjoy reversing into our fence with it.
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by Swift »

Thought it looked abit compact.
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by Heihachi_73 »

Here's one I forgot about from midday on Valentine's Day, a London cab that ended up lost in Ringwood, complete with UK plates. Photo taken in Bond St just after the first bus stop on route 742 past Costco. The Nissan Elgrand minivan next to it could be a Japanese import, as much like the taxi, I don't think they were sold here either. Also marvel at the beauty of Ringwood, where cars are seemingly allowed to park on the nature strip and footpaths are few and far between, despite Costco, Coles, Aldi and Bunnings being 200m away and Eastland Shopping Centre 300m away from the location of this photo. I guess Ringwood isn't home to Car City for nothing!
Swift wrote:Waz it autle-matique or Manuel?
Never looked, it was at the wrong end of the carpark, I was too busy trying to get in and out of Coles before the aisles became /dev/null.
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

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I remember there was a batch of London type cabs in Melbourne, can't remember what the model was called, but they were repowered with Commodore 3.8L V6 engines converted to LPG, was late 80's early 90's and last one retired in about 1997. They were sort of SUV like.
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boronia
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by boronia »

They were known here as "MetroCabs", we had a few in Sydney as well.
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by Swift »

boronia wrote:They were known here as "MetroCabs", we had a few in Sydney as well.
They were a more modern style assembled here with Holden Commodore power pack. I caught a couple and thought they were fantastic.
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boronia
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by boronia »

scott wrote:It is actually a Corolla 4WD Wagon, not a Camry.

A relative of mine had one, he used to enjoy reversing into our fence with it.
I thought it was a bit small, but Toyotas tend to grow over time. The current model Yaris looks bigger than my 2006 Corolla.

Wasn't there some odd model Camry that came out before the mainsteam models were available here?
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Re: Rare and interesting car sightings

Post by Merc1107 »

boronia wrote:Wasn't there some odd model Camry that came out before the mainsteam models were available here?
That would probably be the first generation of the mid-1980s, that were available in life-back form in addition to the sedan. There was also the option of a turbo diesel engine (I think from the Hilux, but not sure).

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